Credit Suisse said it has made a number of senior appointments in its Middle East and North Africa equities business.

Wafiq Nsouli and Ali Salaam join the Swiss bank as directors and co-heads of the equities department in the Middle East and North Africa region. Based in Dubai, they will report to Bassam Yammine and Bruno Daher, co-chief executives of Credit Suisse in the Middle East, locally and Ian Dalglish and Guy Rigden, co-heads of EMEA Emerging Market Equities.

Mr Salaam and Mr Nsouli assume their positions on 15 July and 1 September, respectively.

Mr Nsouli joins Credit Suisse from HSBC, where he was head of equities sales in Dubai since January 2007. Mr Salaam joins from Deutsche Bank, where he was a director and head of regional equity sales in Dubai.

Credit Suisse has also appointed Hans Zayed as a director and head of the equity research product in the Middle East. Mr Zayed joins the bank from Merrill Lynch, where he was a senior research analyst dedicated to the MENA region. In addition, Guillaume Danis has been appointed as a director in the HOLT Sales team, where he will be responsible for building HOLT's suite of innovative products in the MENA region. HOLT is the Swiss bank’s company research platform.

The bank has also bolstered its sales and trading efforts in the region, appointing Fouad Dajani, Saad Tayara and Nicholas Bye as vice presidents in the Middle East equities sales and trading and product management teams.

The appointments follow several key equities announcements in the region. In June, the bank launched its "Access MENA" trading platform, which allows international investors to buy economic exposure to stocks in the Middle East. It also hosted its first conference dedicated to the BRIC ( Brazil, Russia, India and China) and MENA countries, which brought together senior representatives of the leading companies in the Middle East.